Iraqi court sentences Turkish citizen to death by hanging for ‘joining ISIL’

BAGHDAD

An Iraqi court has sentenced a Turkish woman to death by hanging for joining the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), Reuters reported, citing a statement taken out by the spokesman for the criminal court in Baghdad on Feb. 19. 

Ten other women of various nationalities were sentenced to life in prison and all the verdicts can be appealed, Judge Abdul-Sattar al-Birqdar said in the statement.

“The court has issued 10 verdicts of life in prison against 10 women after convicting them of terrorism, and sentenced to death by hanging another terrorist who holds Turkish citizenship,” al-Biqdar said.

Haider al-Ibadi, the Iraqi Prime Minister, had announced the war on ISIL had ended in December 2017.

In 2014, ISIL, under the leadership of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had taken control over the Iraqi city of Mosul and had declared a so-called caliphate.

At one point, more than 10 million people were living under ISIL’s rule in Iraq and in Syria.